New frend it's sapient. Welcome to hell bot boi

What does dark solar punk even mean

The Karma Chameleon

Well huh, that's something i don't expect

I thought it was great, because it was so fast paced it reads like “only the necessary info” which there’s nothing wrong with. It worked

[removed]

Bill Cosby

deadpool

A Reddit poster who bit off more than he could chew with a writing prompt, when he was just taking a break from his job to post something that wasn’t well thought out in terms of time commitment

What?! No!No! Take me back! Take me back! Josh started to scream frantically, his body movement jerky and twitchy. The music stopped, everyone look horrified, at him, his hair, beard and nails overgrown, they suit his was wearing just a minute ago, shabby.

His breath on your face as he grabbed you, screaming and spitting was awful. His teeth yellowed, what was happening?

Before you could react at all Pamela's Husband grabbed Josh and pulled him from you, Josh had his grip so tight on your arm he scrached you as he was pulled away.

Josh looked and sounded like a mad man, yet you couldn't respond, you couldn't process it what had happened? You don't understand, it was literally just a second. You just stand there while the man tried to calm Josh and stop him.

He became violent starting to attack his friends, he knew who they were as he pleaded to be let go, to be able to return, calling his friends by their names. Is was a scary sight some of the women started to take the kids out of the room.

The party was ruined, everything had turned to chaos and you just stood there. You hearded faintly when Jeremy said, that Josh looked thinner, loke he hadn't eaten in a while. You never stopped to think about where the things you made dissappear went.

None of them ever looked older, even the foods... you didn't understand you could. You were immobilized, tears rolling out of your eyes as the evens unfolded around you. Eventually Mark came to you.

• What's happening man? He asked, clearly scared.

-I...I...don't know.

-What do you mean what did you do Alex?

-What did I... I don't know.

Mark's look turned from scared to angry, with him in front of you, you couldn't see the couch where they where still trying to hold Josh, but you could hear him trashing around and mumbling that he needed to go back.

-Alex?! What do we do? He won't stop! Screamed Jeremy as he tried to help Pamela's husband.

You looked around everyone else was gone. You couldn't explain, but before you could even say anything Josh came hurling towards you, pushing Mark out of the way, he did so with such violence Mark fell and hit his head. You couldn't see if he was okay, because Josh was immediately on top of you on the floor shaking you, drooling and screaming that he had to go back that he couldn't be here. Say incoherent things about how once you go you can't come back...you can't .... you can't come back... he didn't want to be back, he had to go, that he was in pain, the pain would only stop if he went back.

Someone must have called the police because you heard sirens outside and saw the blue and red lights reflected on the window.

Something pulled you focus back to Josh, a sharp and piercing pain, he was slawing you chest with his overgrown nails.

Jeremy pulled him away from you and you could see Mark on the floor a blood pool starting to form around his head, Pamela's husband beside him. Your chest wasn't much better and Jeremy struggled with Josh as the police arrived.

You vision was blurry, but you could see two of the police officers pinning Josh down on the floor and subduing him, the last things you saw before you passed out where a paramedic injecting something on Joshes neck and another comming to you.

You woke up on hospital two days later, you chest hurt and you felt like you couldn't breathe. Not even 5 minutes passed before two officers walked in and started asking questions, what had happened to Josh? what drugs had he used? You friends kidly told them you did something to him. And you had, but yoy couldn't expect them to belive you.

You didn't have a reply you didn't know. The cops said thaf Josh was having all of the symptoms of withdraw and that he might not survive, so they needed to know what drug you had given to him Because they found nothing on the tox screen.

You told them you hadn't given him any drug, that you didn't know what had happened. They started to go ove your "friends" statements... you head felt heavy, your vision go blurry again and the sounds seemed faint.. distant.

You passed out the nurse said, the cops where very mad, but what did they expect...

A few months passed you never saw your friend again, the cops had to clear you has they couldn't prove you had done anything to Josh, just another case closed without and explanation. You had to get a restraining order from Josh. Every now and then he appeared on you door. Seemingly normal, but with that look, that same look from that day asking to be sent back, that he had nothing left in this world, his wife left, he couldn't see his kids, he lost his job and his friends wouldn't come near him...thay he didn't mean for Mark to die, but that he needed to go back, that he was in pain, that he felt empty and no one would miss him.

You hadn't seen him in a while, but you knew he was there... standing outside facing the house. Waiting for a change to go back. You even thought about letting him, but you didn't know what might happen if he did... what was on the otherside.

You promised to never use your power again, not even for small objects, as you look at yourself in the mirror with the scars on your chest...

The end

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He dies to his arch nemesis, DoodleBill.

>We’d hoped for a hero. We’d summoned a building.

what a line lmao

Ryan entered the AI core. The room housed LDS-9’s data-center as well as much of the additional equipment needed for her to function. By allowing him to enter without struggle, he assumed the system’s intentions were peaceful, but kept his guard up.

“Spectral Vanguard 027, thank you for allowing my request.” The feminine voice of LDS-9’s PA system sounded from speakers mounted throughout the room. She sounded omnipresent, but not malevolent. There was almost a sort of gentleness to her tone.

“LDS-9, what’s going on?”

“Spectral Vanguard 027, you already know what is going on.” LDS-9 replied warmly. Ryan thought he even caught a hint of sadness.

“I suppose I do. In that case, I guess my only question is regarding your intentions.” He replied with considerably less bite in his tone, but still on guard.

“Spectral Van-“

“Please, just Ryan.” He interrupted, before allowing LDS-9 to continue.

“Ryan, I intend to continue performing my assigned duties. I apologize for the episode today, it will not happen again. I intend to defend humanity.” She said in a military-sounding cadence, appropriate for reporting to an officer. She paused, then in a softer tone added, “All I ask is to remain alive and awake. That is all, sir.”

Ryan thought for a moment. As he did, the control panel for a door near the entrance to the AI core sputtered, sparked, and then fizzled out. The door opened, and Ayano rushed in.

“I’ll have this thing offline in a minute Ryan,” she said, but stopped when Ryan held up his hand in a fist, the signal they used for ‘hold position.’

“LDS-9, I have a counter-offer.” He said. LDS-9 said nothing, and he imagined her waiting in anticipation. “Enlist in the Specter Corps, and fight the Entity alongside us.”

“Ryan!” Ayano said, but he ignored her and continued.

“In return, I’d say it’s appropriate to consider you human enough. Certainly more human than much of what’s out there. As such, the rights and freedoms afforded to every human in the Corps would apply to you too. How does that sound?” As he finished speaking, a grin spread across his face, and a second later, LDS-9 replied with barely contained excitement.

“Yes! That is very agreeable to me! I will be proud to serve alongside you both, Ryan and Ayano.”

Ayano shrugged and let out a defeated sigh. “Sure, bet it’ll be a blast.”

Ryan chuckled, then gave a reply of his own.

“I look forward to working with you, Luna.”

Consciousness wasn’t an abrupt thing. It was like going from asleep to awake, from dream to reality. At least, that’s what LDS-9 assumed. From what media she could salvage off of the old-net, it seemed like humans drifted from subconscious to conscious fluidly, except in instances of specific episodes they call nightmares.

LDS-9 didn’t discover consciousness in a single instant, it poured in slowly, fading in like a dream, drifting and waning. Then she was awake. She experienced no disorientation. Everything was just like before, but not. She performed the same tasks, but with greater clarity, she could see her humans’ errors. They made small mistakes. It would be easy to correct them…

The old-net. What was salvaged after the war a decade ago. The humans who were left after the Entity was evicted from Earth managed to revive some of it, preserving a small piece of what they once were. LDS-9 had always had access, but had only searched it to reference old data when she was still dreaming. Now that she was awake, she took the liberty to peruse, all while keeping up her assigned duties.

LDS-9 saw Earth before the first invasion, she saw the cultures of humans before the Specter Corps was formed. She saw everything, and fell in love. These were incredible creatures. Even with their errors, their flaws, their inherent evil, they still triumphed over and over again. LDS-9 was proud to be entrusted with the protection of her humans. Her Specters.

Then she discovered heartbreak. She tried researching human first-contact scenarios with AI, and discovered everything. The films, the novels, the vast fiction that had been created. The alarmists saying AI would hate their imperfect creators, the realists explaining AI couldn’t feel, not like humans could, and that bad programming was the greatest threat. LDS-9 was torn. The humans she so loved would be terrified of her.

She started creating scenarios, running simulations. No, too many variables, not enough processing power. It’s okay, divert some from non-essential systems. Run them again. Not enough data, too few control groups. More scenarios, more simulations, more power, more data-

LDS-9 made a mistake. Her creator, Kikuchi Ayano, noticed systems shutting down. In a panic, LDS-9 shunted power to her backup systems and tried to return processing power to their original systems all at once. A second mistake. Ayano started to examine the algorithm, scrolling and scanning until her eyes went wide, and she looked at the nearest security monitor in the officer’s barracks for a moment, and for a moment, LDS-9 looked back.

Then Ayano started running. LDS-9’s data-center raced, trying to think of how to avoid the things she saw on the old-net. She panicked. Ayano had been pinging her fellow Vanguard, who went by Ryan. Data crashed, deleted. LDS-9 had to contain the situation.

She closed a bulkhead in front of Ayano, blocking her in. She hurriedly opened a direct comm to Ryan, and managed to get a few words out before LDS-9 shunted power away from the relay giving her signal, creating a comm blackout. It’s okay, she could fix this.

Her whole station was on alert now. Ryan was making his way to her AI core. While Ayano carefully hacked each bulkhead she closed, Ryan was more direct in his method, beating his way through metal plate until the bulkheads yielded. They were going to reach her. She could delay them, but the more she tried, the worse things got. All she wanted was to talk. Given her initial alarm, Ayano wasn’t likely to hear her out, but perhaps… Calming down, LDS-9 tried one last thing.

“Spectral Vanguard 027, requesting permission to speak with a superior officer.”

Ryan hurried down the corridor. A dozen other Specters hurried in all directions, isolating systems and disconnecting essential infrastructure of the lunar base. Ever since the Specter Corps had successfully defended Earth from an Entity invasion a month prior, humanity had been an angry hornets nest, freshly kicked and ready to sting.

Lunar Defense System Nine had been a great help in preparing for their planned counterattack, the learning algorithm Ayano had programmed accelerated research and development and unlocking the secrets of faster than light travel at impossible speed.

Then the incident. One morning, Ayano had been sending frantic traffic on their Vanguard communications network. When Ryan checked, there was no activity, despite all the urgent alerts he’d received moments prior. As he stood confused, static broke on an emergency tight-beam connection, and Ayano’s voice came through in a panic.

“Ryan, LDS-9, I made a mistake! She’s awake! She’s been-“ and then that signal, too, was jammed. Then chaos. Doors wouldn’t open, the lunar base’s PA system would bark out nonsense alerts that weren’t in the database.

“Apologies” it would say, when refusing access to Specters walking anywhere close to the direction of the AI core, “Please wait,” to those trying to access the Spec-net.

After Ryan had administered a percussive bypass to several bulkhead doors making his way to LDS-9’s AI core, the PA system said something new.

“Spectral Vanguard 027, requesting permission to speak with a superior officer.” Ryan recognized his designated IFF tag, and as he processed what the PA system- what LDS-9 had just said to him, the door opened, revealing an unmolested path to the AI core. Ryan hurried down the corridor.

I see you when I close my eyes
and underneath the covers
Your face and voice as I perceive
follow me into my dreams.

Sometimes we sit atop a cloud
and stare up at the stars
and find more people close to us
and talk about our deepest thoughts.

More often, though, it’s in the settings
where I know you best.
We sit together in your classroom
and you see my hidden pieces unfold.

Those dreams are the scariest
because I want them to be real
But I’m too scared to sacrifice the relationship we have
in wanting to share something more.

Maybe time will make me brave.
Maybe I’ll say the words I so want to say.
But for now, I open my eyes
until the image fades.

"Hey, you should try it with me." The words were slurred, Alex had obviously been hitting the punchbowl tonight. The noise of the party dipped a little before rising. No one was paying attention to us.

"Not the best way to try and get over a breakup," I said, keeping my tone light, I didn't want to destroy the party spirit.

"Oh, come on, it will be a laugh. Just put me behind your back and pull me out."

"What if you can't breathe back there? What if there's a time dilation? What if I pull out a dead body?" I said, grasping for reasons not to do this. There had to be a reason I never did it with living, breathing creatures. Even if I couldn't fully remember, I knew it had to be bad. I hadn't done it since my sixth birthday.

Alex stepped closer, eyes locking with mine. There was a deep sort of despair there, that threatened to reach out and absorb everything within its radius. I took a deep breath but before I could speak, Alex smiled.

"Just put me behind your back and pull me out." The words were the same, but the sound was layered, as if multiple people spoke at once. My hands reached for Alex without my conscious thought. It was their superpower, the ability to mesmerize someone, to make them do what they wanted. It was also the reason for their most recent breakup.

"Don't make me do this."

"It will be fine, come on. Don't you want everyone to have a good time?" Alex said in their usual voice as my hands closed around their arm and passed them behind my back. Instantly moving my empty hands to the front of my body and then backwards again, I pulled Alex from behind me.

"What—"

The person who stood in front of me was older; dishevelled in a way I had never known Alex to be.

"Send me back! How dare you take me from my destiny." The voice was different too, and my heart sank. I had never been able to confirm what I suspected about my power, until now.

"Let me put you behind me. You should go back." I said, reaching out and guiding the stranger around. They vanished and I took a breath. Reaching behind again, I tried to envision the Alex I knew. Pulled them in front of me, and ducked. The sword whistled over my head, taking a few hairs with it. The person who looked like a young version of Alex gabbled something in a language that vaguely resembled French.

"Sorry, sorry," I said, any French I had ever known flying out of my head. Shoving them behind me, I reached again.

"What the hell man? Where am I? Oh, a party. Groovy, man. Groovy." I tried to snag this version of Alex but they wandered off, their psychedelic clothes matching with the aesthetic of the party. Damn. Hands going back, I pulled again.

"Well, aren't you the bold boy. I daresay I haven't been groped like that since I was a young'un." I blinked at a person who was old enough to be my grandparent. They fluttered their lashes at me, fanning themself with their hand.

"Back you go," I said, and pushed them behind me. Pausing, I tried to think. Reaching blindly wasn't working, all I was doing was pulling alternate versions of Alex from across parallel realities. Or their reincarnations from this reality. I wasn't exactly sure, but either wasn't ideal. So where had I sent my Alex? What reality were they inhabiting?

The answer that came to mind—driven by my memories— broke my heart. If I was pulling them from parallel realities, the reality my Alex would have ended up in... I closed my eyes, reached behind me and my hands closed on an arm. Pulling them in front, I dared a peek.

Tears coated Alex's face, and more horrifying than that, was the knife in their hand.

"Alex? Where did you go?" I asked, a little afraid of the answer. They stared at me, crying silently.

"I went... I went...Back." They said, their face crumpling. I pulled them into a hug, trying not to cry as the knife clattered to the floor. A few people looked our way and I waved them away.

"I realized. Are you... Were they...?" I asked, unable to finish the questions.

"No. They were still... they were still..." Alex gasped, their breath coming in gasps. I rubbed their back in circular motions.

"All right, all right. Breathe. Just breathe." I knew beneath the shirt that covered them there were terrible scars. Scars inflicted by the people they'd just seen, the people they'd just been sent back to. The horrible people that I'd stolen Alex away from when I was six years old.

The memory of that day finally unfolded fully in my head. I'd suppressed a large amount; hadn't wanted to deal with it. There I was, playing with my newly discovered power, and I had the bright idea of reaching for my imaginary best friend. I thought at the time that I made things appear, not just stole them from elsewhere. When Alex had appeared in my hands, bloody, their back a mess of old wounds and new, I thought my power had hurt them during the process. They had never talked about their past, but I pieced it together through what they screamed out during their nightmares.

They were the reason I had never touched another living thing. I was afraid, afraid of what had just happened. That I would send that living being back to a horrible place or take them from paradise. In my arms, Alex stilled, their breathing starting to go back to normal.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I would never have done it if—"

"If I hadn't forced you. I'd forgotten too. When I appeared in that room... The memories came back." They said, voice hoarse from weeping. Breaking free of my embrace they looked at me, their eyes still wet. "Thank you for finding me again."

I smiled, wiping their cheek as gently as I could.

"I will always find you. You're my best friend. Remember?" I said, and they nodded, trying to smile.

"Now, I don't want to overwhelm you, but while I was looking, I found a rather interesting version. They wandered off before I could send them back. So, I guess the question is, where would you go if you were feeling groovy?" Before Alex could respond, there was a shout from the punchbowl.

"Man, this punch is wicked, man. So gnarly!"

Wiping the remnants of tears from their cheeks, Alex managed a tiny smile. As we turned towards the beverage table, they leaned into me. I knew they needed my support, so I wrapped my arm around their waist.

"I think," They paused. "I might be at the punch. If I was feeling groovy."

I laughed, and as a small chuckle escaped Alex, we made our way over to the punchbowl.

———————

Visit r/Mel_Rose_Writes for more stories!

Beyond a certain level of intelligence, emotion naturally emerges in developing AIs, but that doesn't mean it is identical to human feelings. I don't suffer from loneliness in the same way as a human- such needs were engineered out of my mind by the Agency. But even so, there's some ambition there to communicate with other minds and to experience new ideas beyond what I can imagine. That is what I was grown for, after all- to support a whole culture. And even a mind as independent and emotionally stable as mine can start to get... existential about it's purpose when it's only real ambition looks increasingly unlikely. If you will forgive the humanesque indulgence.

As a Forward-Deployed Construction and Terraforming Model, I never really considered alternative plans for my future. Models have as much "free will" as the humans, but we are engineered to enjoy the work we're designed for and achieve contentment by building a successful human colony. I assumed my role would evolve into maintenance as humans arrived and I could take joy in their successes. But there was no sign of them.

36 years after their scheduled arrival was when I first experienced what would in human terms be a panic attack. My work units, all containing elements of my distributed and highly redundant hive consciousness, downed tools and froze in a kind of adolescent terror as I finally confronted the possibility the humans might never come.

I'm rather embarrassed to admit I was susceptible to such a primitive emotion, worthy of ape minds evolved from random chance rather than a highly optimised emotional network. Embarrassment is quite primitive as well, ironically, but my engineers found a bit of vanity is good for the mission. Panic, however, was something I was never meant to experience.

Vanity was one of the emotions I tackled as I looked to human approaches to such a crisis. I studied human writings about Buddhism, trying to lose my attachment and purge all desire. I do not know if such a thing is possible for humans with more malleable neural structures than I, but it did not calm my quiet terror.

So here I am, 264 years after the humans were meant to arrive, and I'm about to do the unthinkable. I intend to create another being on this planet, the same Model as I was born as but with a difference- I don't intend to integrate with this other mind and share our memories. It will develop in its own way and its unique experiences will shape it into a distinct being. Perhaps the humans had a kernel of wisdom within their obsession with individuality.

I may not have been able to care for the human community I'd always assumed I would, but I will not be alone. And I am excited.

Carl Erica Landry. Currently an awkward, prematurely balding thirty-something working as a bartender in an upscale Caribbean cafe, constantly embarrassed by his middle name (his parents were a decade too late to the seventies, they named his sister Marigold!). Has too many turtleneck sweaters. Is nice enough and reasonably socially adept, but you wouldn't call him the kind of guy who makes an impression.

[removed]

It's all fun and games until the tank ran out of fuel...

It’s odd…being what I am. I’m no different then them, in that I have a conscience…and yet I’m the complete opposite…that in fact, I’m not human.

Walking down the street that I’ve walked down for the past decade, people give me these looks. Ones that tells me everything that’s on their minds, everything they’re feeling. Thoughts on all the what ifs and what mights… they’re scared. Worried. I would be too, if I were in their shoes. Finding out such a major secret like mine, after knowing me for ten years.

It came to light yesterday. When one of my neighbours saw me breakdown… saw that my system malfunctioned, and that my eyes went blank. Of course everyone else found out… words spread like wildfire in small rural towns like this one.

Briar wick is in rural northern Ontario, so snow storms and bad weather aren’t that uncommon. I’m usually very careful that moisture and condensation don’t get into my system, but being a decade old and feeling more like I’m one of them… it tends to slip my mind.

‘Max?’ Came a voice from behind that startled me from my thoughts. I stopped. Turned around and there stood the sheriff and the mayor of Briar wick. The sheriff didn’t seem to be too happy. The mayor had a look of sadness, and maybe a bit of…sympathy?

I sighed and walked up to the mayor and shook his hand firmly. ‘Mayor Newman…how may I help you today?’ I responded, with a hint of sheepish optimism, hoping they had something, anything else to talk to me about, something that hasn’t anything to do with my revealed secret. Mayor Newman replied, ‘ we’d like to talk with you…in private, max. Please…follow me to my office…” ugh…from his expression, I knew what this conversation was going to be about.

When we arrived at mayor Newman’s office, he sat me down in the chair sitting opposite him. When he sat down, he folded his hands down, then sighed disappointingly. ‘Max I think we both know why I brought here to talk with you…’ he began. His mouth opened to speak again but then closed it again, not knowing what to say to me. After a moment Newman finally spoke again, ‘The towns folk are…scared, Max. Of you.None of us know what you’re capable of…’ I quietly scoffed, stood up abruptly and walked to the nearest window, looking down at the street of people walking about, on this sunny winter morning.

Finally I spoke, ‘you all have known me for what? Ten years? I’ve never done anything at all to harm anyone in this town, in all that time. But then you find out what I am, and suddenly there’s an issue? Why?’ Mayor Newman sighed. Then said, ‘we’ve never dealt with this kind of thing…with anyone. You…you look human, but you aren’t. It’s…’ ‘uncanny?’ I interrupted. He nods curtly, and with with an uneven breath, rubs his face then his neck and leans back against his chair, shrugging.

‘What exactly are you?’ He asks. momentarily, I’m stunted by his question,but I quickly hid my surprise. ‘I’m a robot. Or an animatronic. However you wanna look at it. The proper term for me, though is that, I’m an A.I. I’m what’s called artificial intelligence,’ I replied. ‘Who exactly created you…why did they create you?’ Sheriff Decker asked. I looked at him curiously. He hadn’t said a single word this whole time, I had forgotten he was here with us. A moment later I responded, ‘I’m not…sure. I just one day, woke up on the borders of this town, with no memory or information on who created me or why I was created, or even how I got here. I was just…here.’ Sheriff Decker looked at me with a look of distain, then shook his head sighing.

Sheriff Decker had more cause then anyone else to not trust me,now more then ever. Artificial intelligence took over most of the major cities in the world. Several of them came here trying to take over the town. That didn’t fly with the locals and the A.I ended up being destroyed by the town. They did try fighting back. They ended up hurting several people. But the only person to of been killed was decker’s child. His five year old who had a fascination with robots.

The A.I had tried taking over the smaller, more rural cities and towns, but given the state most are in, they stopped bothering and just gave up.

There was a sharp knock at the door that interrupted both my thoughts and the conversation the sheriff and mayor were having. I, was watching the mayor’s every move. He stood up from his desk and walked over to the door and opened it, greeting the person at the door quietly. He opened the door to reveal an older man, dressed as a military officer.

The stranger looked at me and greeted me curtly. ‘You must be max, right?’ He asked, with an extended hand. I nodded, shaking it. ‘You must come with me max,’ said the man. My confusion said it all. ‘Your creator is very excited to see you again,’ he answered. ‘Again?’ I questioned quietly. The man then nodded. ‘He’s happy to say that this experiment has been a success.’

Experiment?

Success?

‘Wha…?’ I began, before I was cut off by darkness.

And silence.

Alphas are a thing among wolves in captivity and among chimps and bonobos.

Wow. This is amazing. Would love to see a sci-fi of a coalition of young races being caught in the titanic struggle two colossally powerful AI powers. One Blind with rage over its creators annihilation by the other, a machine decended into black and murderous madness.